Dogs Barking!

Xon

Our two dogs are barking all day when we leave the house.

They are well exercised etc.

Thinking of getting anti-bark shock collars.

Any major reasons not to use these? Are they effective?

Any recommendations of makes/models etc?

Shanao

Wouldn't reccomend any kind of shock collar, the damage they can do when they malfunction is horrible. Depends on what kind of dogs you have too, what breeds are they? Some have very high pain tolerance, some have low, so the shock collars are pretty much ineffective on some breeds.
Also, are they inside or outside?

x in the city

if you cant be there to look after dogs then you shouldnt have any tbh,

I lived in houses and had neighbours dogs yelping constantly all day, ever fekin day.

drives you up the wall. some dogs need attention all the time and shouldnt be left alone anyway, like king charles spaniels..:o

and shock collars seem brutal, if you even considered using them perhaps dogs are not for you at all

DarkBlonde

We have this problem with the neighbor's dogs. Example: they barked from 6.30am yesterday and continued until the afternoon. I was going mad listening to them as you can imagine. But i still wouldn't advise on the use of the shock collars. They are cruel on the poor dogs. Maybe try change their routine, give them a good walk in the morning before you leave. Give them some toys to keep them occupied.

jap gt

you can get a collar that will give a spray or air into the dogs face, they a meant to be very good



http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/8705039/Trail/searchtext%3EDOG.htm

Daniel S

Xon wrote: »

Our two dogs are barking all day when we leave the house.

They are well exercised etc.

Thinking of getting anti-bark shock collars.

Any major reasons not to use these? Are they effective?

Any recommendations of makes/models etc?

Well, we had a shocker collar for our golden retriever when she was a pup because no matter what we did, she managed to get into the neighbours. After about 1 month, she learned not to try and dig under fences and we haven't had a problem since, she's 3 years old now. As for barking, we had a cup of water that we kept near the back door if she kept barking (Throw a bit, not alot, of water in her DIRECTION, not on top of her ). She doesn't like water, but then again, we only needed that for about a day before she realised, she's not allowed to bark. I know this looks really harsh, but she's really well behaved now, it's been all praise for the last 2+3/4 years now, never had a problem since then. I'd say get the shocker collar until they learn, but only use it when you're around them, wouldn't be fair if it malfunctioned like an above poster said. Test it on yourself before the dog, don't want to be too mean :P

EDIT:

jap gt wrote:

you can get a collar that will give a spray or air into the dogs face, they a meant to be very good

Wish I had known about that, looks good.

portgirl123

i wouldnt use them collars either. think was a bit harsh to say if u cant be there with dogs u shouldnt have them. im lucky at the moment im not working but i know if a job came in the morning i would take it like a shot.

how do you know the dogs are barking all day. Are neighbours complaining? there is nothing as bad as hearing dogs barking all day every day. Are they walked in morning before you leave for work? Are they in/outside all day. Could you maybe get someone in to walk/let them out break up there day a bit?

Remember in a petshop where i worked ppl used to come back after using these collars saying, they were no good and the majority said they wouldnt waste their money. Had a few that said if they had 2 or more dogs if one barked the collar used to go of on the other dog as well.

Xon

x in the city wrote: »

if you cant be there to look after dogs then you shouldnt have any tbh,

I lived in houses and had neighbours dogs yelping constantly all day, ever fekin day.

drives you up the wall. some dogs need attention all the time and shouldnt be left alone anyway, like king charles spaniels..:o

and shock collars seem brutal, if you even considered using them perhaps dogs are not for you at all

get off your horse

Bunny Buster

Xon wrote: »

get off your horse

HERE HERE!!!

Xon

Thanks for all the other input.

The dogs are both 7 month old westhighland terriers.

They are kept inside at night and outside during the day time (in the back garden where they have a large kennel).

They are walked every evening, and off the lead, down in the local park for an hour which is great for tiring them out. We try get them out every other weekend for a 2/3 hours doing one og the walks at Glendalough or the Bray to Greystones walk.

The neighbour behind us complained about the barking. They seem fairly reasonable. I've noticed that there is another dog a couple of houses down barking aswell which I'm sure is being confused for our dogs sometimes. Nonetheless it does set our dogs off, and they are capable of barking on their own I'm sure.

I left them in the house today just to reduce the nuisance factor. I'm off for a couple of days next week so I might put them out and see what happens if they think we are gone off to work.

The water idea seems good, but the don't bark much at all when we are there - the very odd yap here and there for attention, but generally not at all.

I read that the spray doesn't work.

Struggling for a solution.

Bunny Buster

That spray is ( in my opinion ) just another one of those projects that didn't quite make it onto Dragons Den! I have a Springer Spaniel who went through the same barking phase, and the old reliable " pale of water " trick worked for me. I was away a lot and he was left outside for hours at a time. On my days off I kept to the routine, which some might say was a counter active approach to the problem, but I can assure you it wasn't!! I kept a large barrel of water not too far from the back door, which was high enough to prevent him to getting at or into, and every time he barked while I was there, I went out filled a bucket from the barrel and threw it in his direction. Bring him to a lake or river and be prepared to wait before he comes out, he loves being in the water, but HATES water been thrown over him! You can go and pay € 55.99 for a product that is not guaranteed to work, and is also likely to spur on more behavioural problems OR you can opt for the more humane approach!:p However, make sure the bucket isn't too big, they are little Westies afterall!:D:D:D

Good luck with it, and trust me, the water method won't take long!

Xon

Bunny Buster wrote: »

That spray is ( in my opinion ) just another one of those projects that didn't quite make it onto Dragons Den! I have a Springer Spaniel who went through the same barking phase, and the old reliable " pale of water " trick worked for me. I was away a lot and he was left outside for hours at a time. On my days off I kept to the routine, which some might say was a counter active approach to the problem, but I can assure you it wasn't!! I kept a large barrel of water not too far from the back door, which was high enough to prevent him to getting at or into, and every time he barked while I was there, I went out filled a bucket from the barrel and threw it in his direction. Bring him to a lake or river and be prepared to wait before he comes out, he loves being in the water, but HATES water been thrown over him! You can go and pay € 55.99 for a product that is not guaranteed to work, and is also likely to spur on more behavioural problems OR you can opt for the more humane approach!:p However, make sure the bucket isn't too big, they are little Westies afterall!:D:D:D

Good luck with it, and trust me, the water method won't take long!

Thanks for that.

Spoke to the vet today aswell. Advice was; try taking them for an early morning walk to use up some of their energy; Get one of those toys with the food buried inside which takes them a long time to dig out and thus takes up a lot of their time and energy.

I think I will try doing some early mornign walking together with a 'puinishment' for the barking when we ctach them - going to start with the water and move on to the spray and shock collar depending on the success we get.

Bunny Buster

Here is a review for that particular spray collar, it's a bit of a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other!


http://reviews.petco.com/3554/105071/reviews.htm